Terminal Velocity
by Artificer Urza
Summary: Introducing the sultan of speed, the monarch of motion, the fastest teen alive: IMPULSE!
1. Chapter 1

Keystone City, along with Metropolis, Gotham and Jump City it is one of the most famous cities in the world. Why, you may ask? Because of its resident superhero of course. Keystone City is the home of the hero known to all as the Flash and it isn't just the Flash's home base, but has been host to numerous speedsters over the years. So many that it has it has a museum dedicated to people, both heroic and villainous who move really, really fast. Of course the major problem with this is that people who run away from Keystone usually are too fast to be caught.

Case in point: say you were travelling in an airplane, travelling at a very high altitude on a cloudless day, being able to see for hundreds of miles. Say you could see things like that and you were looking at a highway that was leading out of Keystone headed east; say you could see like that, you might be able to see the dust cloud heading out of Keystone. Whatever was making that dust cloud was certainly moving faster than anything on the road. Could it be the famed scarlet speedster himself? Now if you could see that well to begin with, you might take notice of the fact that in front of the aforementioned dust cloud was, in fact, a red and white blur leading it. Doesn't the Flash wear red and gold? You may wonder. Now assume you could see well enough to see the blur leading the dust cloud; now imagine you are able to see more than that, see things that the living and the 'normal' aren't able to see. If such were the case, you might be able to see the black blur following the red and white blur. You might even notice that the black blur is slowly catching up to the red and white.

Jump City, home of the Teen Titans. Perhaps not as big as Metropolis or having the same dark underside like Gotham, but certainly as large a number of criminals and super villains as the previous mentioned cities. However none of them have ever come close to moving at hyper speed, the fastest on record being one Johnny Rancid, though in truth, he was only fast because he rode a motorcycle.

This, however, was not that great an advantage as he tore up the streets of Jump City trying to evade the Titans. Robin on his own cycle and the rest of the Titans in the T-Car were in hot pursuit.

"Give it up kid, you can't beat me!" Rancid laughed at Robin.

Robin said nothing as he continued to pursue Rancid. As they rode through the streets a third motorcycle joined up riding alongside Johnny. This motorcycle was a dark crimson, sleeker and of a more advanced design than Robin's cycle; its rider wore dark blood-red leather as well as a red helmet with a skull insignia on it. Rancid tried to knock this intruder off the road, but the stranger easily evaded him.

"Get off the road, geek! You wanna die?" Rancid shouted at the stranger.

The stranger said nothing, looking at Rancid. He pulled out a small handgun and aimed at Rancid's head. Rancid eyes bugged out as he saw the weapon; he'd never stared at the business end of a gun before. He was the bad guy; he was the one who was supposed to do the threatening. The stranger changed the direction he as aiming, pointing the gun at the front tire of Rancid's motorcycle and fired. The wheel blew out, causing the front of the cycle to jump up for brief moment. When the remains of the tire hit the road sparks flew, the metal and the pavement rasping together. Suddenly the bike pitched forward, flinging Rancid of it. The criminal flew through the air, crashing through the rear window of a car. The criminal, alive, but wounded, groaned in defeat. The stranger pulled up by the car, holstered his gun and looked down at Johnny, muttering 'Idiot' under his breath.

The Titans pulled up shortly afterwards to take Rancid into custody. Terra was the first to greet the stranger.

"Oh man, that Rocked! You ever considered becoming a hero?" She said animatedly.

"Thanks for the assist." Cyborg praised.

"We could have taken him." Beast Boy sniffed.

"Glad I could help. Perhaps we'll meet again someday." The stranger said as he rode off.

The stranger rode to a nearly abandoned apartment building. He secured his motorcycle in an adjacent alley and walked in. The place served as a sort of hotel as well as an apartment building, but the place didn't see much business and was in disrepair. The fact that it wasn't all that frequented suited the stranger just fine. He walked up to the front desk and rang for the building manager. He removed his helmet, revealing a handsome face and wavy dark brown hair.

"What do you want?" The fat, balding man asked churlishly.

"My name is Wade DeFarge. We spoke earlier about a room rental." DeFarge replied calmly.

"Oh, yeah… yeah I know who you are now. Your room's number 128, second floor. Sign here and pay now." The fat landlord said shoving a sort of sign-in sheet in front of DeFarge.

"I'll be expecting a delivery later on today, I would ask you not to look into the packages and please do not disturb me in my room. Other than to tell me that the packages have arrived of course." Wade signed the sheet as he spoke.

He placed a wad of bills on the counter and picked up a large and heavy looking duffle bag he kept with him.

"I expect my privacy to be respected." DeFarge said in a stern tone.

"Yeah, yeah. Dudn't matter ta me what ya do." The fat man said, taking the cash.

DeFarge went to his room. It was quite bare, having only a bedroom, bathroom and a closet; not very fit for living, but it would serve his purpose for his stay in Jump City. An hour or so later, the landlord knocked on his door.

"Uh… Y-your stuff is here." The landlord said nervously.

Wade left the room, looking at the landlord suspiciously.

"You didn't look in the boxes did you?" He demanded coldly.

"N-no I didn't. Told you I wouldn't, didn't I?" The landlord stuttered.

This was, of course, a lie; he had looked into the boxes and saw guns and other weapons. Obviously this Wade DeFarge was a criminal, a terrorist. And if he were turned in, the one who did so would earn a nice, fat reward. After a mover took the boxes to DeFarge's room the landlord picked up the phone and dialled 9-1… and was shot in the back of the head. He never saw it coming, nor would anyone have heard anything because of the silencer that was on the gun DeFarge used. DeFarge stood over the corpse, he figured that the place would make a decent base as he didn't have one in Jump City. It would take him a while to get the place set up; have it declared abandoned, set up a small generator for power and other things. If he were successful in his ventures in Jump City, it would all be worth it. He tossed the body in the basement, so he could dispose of it later and returned to his room.

He unpacked the first box and removed the suit that was in there. It was red and blue, made of a thick, flexible, wire mesh that would protect him like military grade Kevlar. He replaced his civilian clothes with the red and blue tights. His occupation was that of a mercenary; very high priced and highly skilled he had yet to fail a job. He put on the red mask; it wouldn't do for his face to be seen while he was working. He was the Ravager, one of the most dangerous non-meta-humans on the planet. This current job was special: it was personal and he was working based on an anonymous tip.

He took out his laptop computer and switched it on. While he could not, at the moment, access his Internet mail account because he wasn't connected online, he could review his older mail. He looked at the most recent one he had received, the one that had prompted him to make the trip to Jump City.

"Do you want to surpass your rival? Do you want to prove you are better than him? There is a way." The message had read. "Defeat those he has not yet defeated and you will prove to be his superior."

The attachments that came with the e-mail were images of Jump City's Teen Titans: Robin, Starfire, Raven, Terra, Beast Boy and Cyborg.

The Titans were as famous as the Justice League and there were many people in the villain community that would have loved to see the Titans go down and they were willing to pay through the nose to see it happen. Of course, most mercenaries were smart enough to know that the children and prodigies of heroes would not go down easily, would be far more trouble than they would be worth and thus would not take such a contract. Rumour in criminal circles was that someone was going after the Titans, though the reasons were unknown. Ravager had it on good authority that that person was his rival and had yet to defeat the Titans. If Wade, as Ravager, could defeat them, kill them, then he would prove to all that he was the better man, that he was superior. The e-mail had also dropped a large sum of money into his account for the job, though Wade would have done it for free, as he was given the chance to finally settle the score with his rival. Ravager strapped on the ammo cartridges and picked up a shotgun; soon it would be time to hunt.

Just outside of Jump City, something moving at a fantastic speed comes to a halt. A dust cloud billows and swells, engulfing him. The dust settles and clears, revealing a teen boy, lean and slightly muscular, dressed in red and white tights. The costume was designed to withstand the air friction caused by moving at intense velocities, speeds approaching the speed of light. He wore goggles to protect his eyes and the shoes he wore had small lightning bolt-like attachment on the ankles. Unlike other meta-humans he did not have any sort of emblem that would give a hint as to his name. He was cocky, confident and rarely thought things out in advance. He looked over his shoulder nervously and then out over the city that spread before him.

"Jump city, home to the Teen Titans…" He whispered to himself. "Cool."

* * *

Fast Facts: The Speed Force is what gives all speedsters in the DC universe their abilities. It seems to be a possibly sentient energy that will for one reason or another give certain people incredible speed. The way the Speed Force seems to work is that it powers any super-fast being not naturally fast. A cheetah, for instance, is naturally fast. Superman's speed is also a natural consequence of his Kryptonian heritage. All Flashes, however, have been normal people "noticed" by the speed force through accidents (lightning, supersonic flight, etc.) or intentional experiments (magic, steroids, etc.). 

Author notes: This is the second story in my little Teen Titans series. Check out my other story 'Birds of a Feather' if you haven't already. A friend of mine is drawing my version of Impulse so I hope to post a link to his drawing as soon as he puts it on his online gallery. For the record, I've seen Bart Allen as both Impulse and Kid Flash and, quite frankly, I liked him as Impulse better.


	2. Chapter 2

"All right! Anyone makes a move and I'll shoot!" A thug said puling out his gun.

It had started out as a pretty normal day. It was sunny, warm and people were generally in a good mood. The First National Jump City Bank had been making good business that day, as many people were depositing and withdrawing money. Everything was going quite well until a group of thugs came in and tried to rob the place.

Why would regular people try to commit crimes in Jump City? It didn't seem like a very smart thing to do, after all this was the Teen Titans city and they fought super villains on a weekly, if not daily, basis. Were they hoping that the teen heroes were distracted elsewhere? Did these criminals bet on the fact that the Titans couldn't be everywhere at once? Were they trying to beat the odds? If they were, it seemed they were right because no hero was coming to save them.

"Open the vault and put the cash in the bag." The leader growled to a clerk, tossing some large sacks to him.

Another clerk began to slowly reach for a silent alarm button on the underside of his desk. He felt if he was lucky, he might get away with it unnoticed. One of the thugs seemed to notice the clerk's actions as he turned his gun on the man.

"Hey! You think he was kidding? I'm gonna blow your brains out." The thug pulled the trigger.

The gun went off with a loud bang and the clerk closed his eyes waiting for the end, an end, which never came. The thug stared at the clerk and fired again. However, this time there was no shot.

"What the hell?" The thug exclaimed, looking at his gun.

The ammo clip had been removed; in fact, all the other brigands' weapons had had their ammo clips suddenly disappear. A groan from behind the leader caused him to turn. He saw one of his men fall to the ground, unconscious

"What is going on here?" The leader demanded.

The leader was suddenly yanked off his feet by an unseen force and flung towards one of his henchmen. His form blurred as he moved at a high velocity, crashing into one of his underlings. The others suffered a similar fate as they all ended up in one big heap. Both clients and clerks stood stunned at this spectacle. What could have been a very bad situation had been averted, but how? The clerk that had been tossed the bags for the money looked in astonishment as the bullet that had been fired and the gun clips were on the counter before him.

The police and the Teen Titans were called in; the police to apprehend the would-be thieves, the Titans to investigate the 'ghost' that had prevented the crime.

"So why are we looking into this anyways? This thing did us a favour, didn't it?" Terra asked as they watched the security camera for the fiftieth time.

"Even if it did help, we don't know who or what it was. I'd rather know what we're dealing with, just in case." Robin replied.

"How can we deal with ghosts though?" Beast Boy asked.

"We could always call the Ghostbusters." Terra said, nudging Beast Boy.

"If there's somethin' strange in your neighbourhood, who ya gonna call?" Beast Boy sang.

"Ghostbusters!" Terra sang back.

"If it's somethin' weird an it won't look good, who ya gonna call?"

"Ghostbusters!"

"I ain't afraid a no ghost. I ain't afraid a no ghost." They both sang.

"It wasn't a ghost." Raven spoke with irritation as she entered the room.

Her entrance took Beast Boy by surprise, causing him to jump with fright, right into Terra's arms.

"Don't do that!" He admonished.

Raven ignored him and his discomfort. Terra dropped him on the ground, hard.

"How can you be sure it was not a ghost, Raven?" Starfire asked.

"When a ghost stays in the living world, it usually stays to one area. Ghosts that remain are also mostly composed of the last emotion they felt before they died. It's usually very intense and leaves emotional echoes behind. There was nothing out of the ordinary." Raven replied tonelessly.

"Could it have been someone invisible then?" Cyborg asked.

"No, if it had then they would have noticed the gun clips being removed and it doesn't explain what happened to the bullet either. But what if, someone was moving fast; so fast that he couldn't be seen?" Robins said as he began to adjust the security recording. "Cyborg, can you slow this down without stopping it completely?"

"No problem, gimme a sec." Cyborg said as he plugged himself into the security system.

"How could anybody move so fast they couldn't be seen?" Terra queried.

"I'm guessing you never met the Flash, huh?" BB said.

"The Flash?"

"The fastest man alive. He has a top speed approaching the speed of light, or so I've been told." Robin answered.

"There aren't that many meta-humans out there who have super speed and not all of them are good either." Raven interjected.

"So this may have been, the The Flash?" Starfire supposed.

"I doubt it, the Flash is way more… well flashy then this. If it was him, then he'd want people to know it was him." Robin said.

"So the Flash is egotistical, just like Beast Boy." Raven said nonchalantly.

"Hey!" Beast Boy griped.

"Yo, super slow-mo on the video!" Cy interrupted.

The Titans turned and watched the super slow pace of the video footage. A red and white blur, moving at high speed despite the slow motion progression of the footage.

"Can't you get it any better than that, Cy?" Robin asked.

"Sorry man, that's the best I can do. This isn't exactly top-of-the-line video equipment you know."

"Dude, it looks like he's on our side. You always expect the worst of everyone."

"I agree with Beast Boy. This person does not appear to be bad. Perhaps we can meet him or her and they can join us?" Starfire, always the optimist.

"Fine, but I think we should keep a look out for this person. It could mean trouble for us, they haven't introduced themselves to us after all." Robin said grudgingly.

"Okay, now that that's settled and there isn't anything else threatening the world or the city, can we go out for pizza or something?" Terra asked.

The Titans, having nothing really better to do, crime fighting didn't really start until the evening anyways, agreed. Robin felt he could investigate this matter just as easily anywhere. There was a place close by that would serve them and it had vegetarian platters so Beast Boy was happy, mostly happy anyways as Cyborg was explaining in detail about his desire for an all-meat platter. Perhaps it was because of the noise generated by the vegetarian and the meat lover, perhaps it was because he was distracted, but Robin never realized they were being watched.

High above them on a nearby roof, Ravager waited and watched for the perfect moment to eliminate the Titans. Most super villains would create elaborate, detailed and complicated plots against the Titans. Sometimes these plots tended towards the ridiculous and were doomed to failure from the start. Others would try to use direct brute force against them, not the best solution either as the Titans usually bested such opponents. The best strategy was using the element of surprise along with strength and planning. Those plans seemed to work the best and had even encountered partial success at times. Ravager was going to use a rocket-propelled-grenade, an RPG to terminate the Titans. As long as they weren't aware of his presence, he would be able to hit them before they would notice him. Simple and effective, it had a high chance of success as plans went and even if it didn't kill the Titans in the first shot, they'd be so badly wounded that hunting them down afterwards would be a simple matter. Ravager knelt, aiming the RPG at the Titans as they enjoyed their meal.

"Goodbye, Titans." He whispered, firing his weapon.

On the ground, as he was about to take a bite out of his vegetarian pizza slice, Beast Boy's ears perked. Even in his human form his sense of hearing was more acute than a normal person's.

"Hey, did you guys hear some…" Beast Boy began.

Something, a blur shot passed them, followed by a loud boom, the sound of something breaking the sound barrier. Glass shattered and gale force winds blew through the streets. The Titans were carried off their feet by the wind. The grenade flew by them after the wind had past and was thus its trajectory not affected by the wind. It exploded on impact, the force of the explosion was only enough to send the Titans closest to it flying, but otherwise causing no harm.

"What was that?" Cyborg demanded.

"Up there!" Terra pointed at Ravager.

"Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, get up there now!" Robin commanded. "Terra, can you get the three of us up there?"

Starfire, Raven and BB flew off, BB turning into a large hawk. Terra knelt, and put her hand to the ground, glowing gold.

"Going up." She said as the earth chunk they stood upon rose from the ground.

On the roof, Raven wrenched the weapon from Ravager's hands; Starfire blasted starbolts, which Ravager dodged, by jumping back. Beast Boy fell from the sky in the form of en elephant and Ravager barely avoided being squashed. He whipped out a machine gun and began shooting at the Titans. Beast Boy morphed back to human and ran for cover, Raven and Starfire flew around, doing their best to avoid bullets.

"A gun? Super villains don't use guns, they have hired goons, or robotic minions or laser weapons or freaky powers!" Beast Boy yelled.

"He's still going down!" Terra shouted, jumping off of the earth platform.

As she landed, her body glowing with power, the building shook and the stone beneath Ravager collapsed. Robin rushed over to the hole.

"He's gone." He stated.

"Who was that guy?" Cyborg asked.

"And who saved us? That wind did not generate itself." Raven pondered.

* * *

Fast Facts: Over nearly a century of DC history, the Speed Force has touched many people, making them speedsters. Lets have a look at the most famous of speedsters, the one with the longest legacy: the Flash. The first Flash was a man named Jay Garrick. In the mid to late 1930's, he was a college student investigating heavy water; don't ask cause I don't know. There was an accident that released some hazardous fumes. It was these chemicals that apparently gave him his super-speed. He fought as the hero The Flash during World War II along with the Justice Society of America. He eventually settled down with his college sweetheart, who became his wife, though he did come out of retirement every so often. These days, he's an active member of the JSA and is the legal guardian of Bart Allen (Kid Flash/Impulse). To this day, I have no idea how he keeps his hat on when he moves at high speed since it does not appear to have straps on it or anything to keep it in place. 


	3. Chapter 3

Ravager sat in his room, putting the finishing touches on some devices. He wasn't going to let one setback keep him from doing the job. This time he had a plan, a plan that would allow him to take care of all the Titans at his own pace and nothing was going to get in his way this time, nothing would be left up to chance.

The Titans patrolled the city in the T-Car, trying to find Ravager, but he had not done anything that would have caught their attention since the previous day when he had tried to attack them. As well the strange incidents involving their mysterious speedster had also calmed down a bit, though they had not stopped entirely.

Cyborg pulled the T-Car over as they approached the Jump City First National Bank; the police had set up a perimeter around the building.

"What's going on officer?" Robin asked the nearest police officer.

"There's a hostage situation. Some costumed nut with a gun came in here and took people hostage. He's been asking for the Titans, saying that if anyone else comes in, he'd kill the hostages." The officer said bitterly.

"We don't have a choice… Let's go Titans." Robin motioned for the team to follow him in.

"What? Dude, shouldn't we a plan or something?" BB protested.

"We'll have to wing it." Terra said rushing along.

They entered the building; the people were huddled in a corner, cowering for their lives and Ravager stood over by the counters, a soupped-up shotgun in one hand, a device that resembled a detonator in the other.

"Welcome, Titans. I was hoping you'd get here earlier, but I suppose it couldn't be helped." Ravager said.

"You're the guy from the other day!" Robin exclaimed.

"How astute of you, boy wonder and they say Batman is the master detective." Ravager replied his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Cyborg demanded, his sonic cannon aimed right at the villain.

"I am Ravager and I've been hired to kill you." He said simply.

"Well you have us, you can let the hostages go." Raven said.

"And lose my only bargaining chip in this situation? I don't think so, besides they are the least of your worries." Ravager pressed the button on the detonator.

The building rumbled and distant thunder could be heard for a brief moment. Raven glanced at Terra.

"Hey! I told you to stop looking at me every time there was an earthquake. It wasn't me!" She said indignantly.

"What did you do?" Starfire demanded.

"I set off two explosions on either side of the city. I imagine that fires have started and are spreading fast. That's… what? Hundreds, maybe thousands of people whose lives are in peril? As 'heroes' its your jobs to save them, isn't it?" Ravager laughed. His body flickered and became transparent. A little box at his feet was projecting a three dimensional image of him. "One other thing… I'm not really here and you have exactly one minute to disarm this bomb otherwise… well 'boom'. Have a nice day Titans, I'll see you around."

The image disappeared and Robin dashed over to the device, beginning to examine it.

"Cyborg, you, Terra and Beast Boy take the west side of the city; do what you can about the fire and save the citizens. Raven, you and Starfire take the east side. I'll take care of this. Get these people out of here!" Robin barked.

"But…" Starfire began to protest.

"GO!" Robin retorted.

The rest of the Titans herded the former hostages out of the bank and then split up towards their separate missions, leaving Robin to deal with the bomb. He took one of the various tools out of he belt and opened the device. He looked at the various wires in it, pulled out a small pair of wire clippers and prepared to cut a wire.

"I've only got one shot at this." He murmured.

-----------------

On the west side of town, Cyborg, Terra and Beast Boy had just begun to combat the flames. The sun had begun to set, so the fire lit up the sky in hues of orange and red. Terra had caused slight earthquakes around fire hydrants to make them burst, spewing cold water everywhere in order to help douse the flames. She then used her powers to help evacuate the citizens along with Cyborg. Beast Boy turned into an elephant and used his long trunk to suck up water and spray it at the flames.

It looked like it was going well, when suddenly a car exploded, sending Terra flying, knocking her unconscious when she hit the ground. Cyborg charged forward towards her to check on her, but never made it as a large metal spike flew out of the flames and skewered him through his electronic eye. Sparks flew and the blue parts of his electronic body turned gray as he shut-down.

"Terra! Cy!" Beast Boy cried out, reverting to his human form and dashing towards them.

He stopped short as the smoke atop the smoldering, flaming heap that used to be automotive vehicles began to clear. Ravager stood atop them, a hunting rifle aimed straight at Beast Boy.

"I love hunting season, don't you?" He laughed.

The gun fired with an explosive bang.

-------------------

Some time later, on the other side of the City, Starfire and Raven had helped evacuate many people and had been able to contain the fire, however, they were concerned about the others, as they had not heard from them. As they helped another group of citizens, Raven using her powers to transport them down and Starfire carried them down thanks to her great strength. Starfire was about to go back up when she spotted something on the roof.

"It is the Ravager!" She exclaimed angrily before flying off after him.

"Starfire, wait!" Raven cried out.

She hesitated a brief moment, making sure that the firefighters could handle it, before taking off after Starfire. Above the roof, Starfire looked down on Ravager; it did not appear as though he had noticed her yet. Her hands glowed green as she charged up her starbolts. Then she let loose an unrelenting barrage of starbolts; the energy projectiles flew threw the air, unerringly at Ravager and then passed right through him, striking the wall adjacent to the building. The image of Ravager flickered and vanished; Starfire gasped realizing it was a trap. She didn't have time to react as bolts of energy lanced out to strike her. She convulsed as the energy danced over her body and cried out in pain. The energy blast stopped and she fell to the roof, hard. Ravager stepped from the shadows, discarded his energy blaster and walked towards the fallen Starfire, a handgun drawn. Starfire struggled to rise.

"You… will… not get… away with… this." She gasped, her eyelids fluttering.

"My dear girl, I already have." Ravager chuckled.

"Get away from her!" Raven yelled. "Azarath, Metrion…"

Ravager turned and threw a small silver ball at Raven. It exploded in bright light.

"AHHHH! Can't see!" Raven exclaimed.

The ball uncoiled as the light blared and it became a plethora of cables came out and wrapped her up, keeping her from moving. She tumbled from the sky, landing on the roof. Raven fell unconscious.

"Now… where were we?" Ravager asked rhetorically, aiming his gun at Starfire's head.

A boomerang whirled out of the darkness and struck Ravager's hand, forcing him to drop the gun. He looked up and saw Robin standing near the edge of the roof.

"These constant interruptions are starting to get annoying." Ravager growled. "Robin, glad to see you could disarm the bomb. Now I'll have the pleasure of killing you myself."

"Get away from her!" Robin said, hurtling two more boomerangs at him.

Ravager whipped out a dagger and slashed at the air, blocking the two boomerangs.

"You 'heroes' and your toys. Really, if you're going to use a projectile weapon, use a gun."

"Guns are for cowards and the weak." Robin retorted.

"Are they now? Why don't we put away the toys and see who's the weak one?" Ravager said as he put away his dagger.

Robin snarled and charged and Ravager met him at about the middle of the distance that had been between them. Robin started with a flying kick, which Ravager grabbed and, using Robin's momentum, tossed him behind him. Robin recovered and attacked again, but it was obvious from the outset that Ravager had a distinct advantage as he broke Robin's guard twice and decked him. Ravager had greater reach, greater power, greater experience and greater technique than the boy wonder; Robin was losing. Robin also noticed, as he was getting pummeled, that Ravager's combat technique was disturbingly similar to Slade's. However, he did not have a chance to ponder what this might mean as Ravager broke his guard once again, kicked him with a solid blow to the solar plexus and sent him crashing to the ground.

"Looks like I win, brat wonder." He said as he pulled out his large shotgun. "Now, shall we find out if your mask is bullet-proof?"

The gun barrel was several inches away from Robin's face. Robin closed his eyes; there was nothing he could do but wait for the end. A thunderous bang sounded, but Robin did not die. He cautiously opened his eyes and was surprised at what he saw. The bullet was smoking, but held between the thumb and forefinger of a red-gloved hand. The bullet dropped.

"Isn't this overkill?" A youthful sounding voice asked. "I mean you're using a nitro express cartridge with a velocity of two thousand F.P.S. and a striking energy of four tons."

Ravager took a step back and suddenly the shotgun in his hands literally went to pieces.

"Who are you?" Ravager demanded.

The slender youth in the red and white costume smiled in a cocky manner.

"The name's Impulse." He said.

* * *

Author Notes: And Impulse makes his entrance, but what about the rest of the Titans? Find out on the next exciting chapter of Terminal Velocity.

Fast Facts: The second Flash was Barry Alen, perhaps the most famous of the Flash legacy. He was doused with lightning struck chemicals from a cabinet as he worked late one night as a police scientist. These chemicals and lightning gave him super-speed. Inspired by Jay Garrick, he took on the name Flash and soon became a celebrated hero and founder of the Justice League of America. After years of crime fighting he married his sweetheart Iris West. After a few years of marital bliss, tragedy struck as the villain, Professor Zoom, killed Iris. Barry fell in love again some time later and almost married Fiona Webb, but Zoom tried to kill this fiancée again. Barry stopped him, but in the process killed Zoom by breaking his neck. Barry went on trial for murder and was eventually acquitted of the crime. Afterwards he was reunited with Iris who had been reborn in the 30th century (don't ask, it's a long story). Barry joined her in that time period and essentially retired from heroics. Barry was wrenched from retirement when the Crisis on Infinite Earths started and he sacrificed himself to save the entire multivers by single-handedly destroying the Anti-Monitor's Anti-Matter cannon. Barry had broken all speed limits and had become one with the Speed Force, or so it is supposed (there are many other stories where Barry makes an appearance). Barry is the father of the Tornado Twins, Dawn and Don Allen and the grandfather of Bartholomew Allen (Impulse/Kid Flash).


End file.
